1. The Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to a closed entry connector housing and in particular to a molded connector block receiving electrical contacts in a pair of rows with at least one row being closed at one end to prevent accidental shorting between contacts of the adjacent rows.
2. The Prior Art
Connector housings of the present type are used to house terminals or other electrical contact elements as desired. The terminals are inserted into open ended cavities formed within the housings and are held therein for engagement with mating contacts inserted into the cavities. In the case of housings molded from flexible thermoplastic, the terminals may be held in the cavities by means of integral molded flexible latches which are depressed during insertion and which snap back behind the terminals when the terminals are fully seated in the cavities. Alternately, a blocking tongue integral with the housing and connected thereto by a flexible thermoplastic strip may be inserted behind the terminals to hold them in place as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,134.
Flexible latches and blocking tongues cannot be used to confine terminals in cavities and connector housings molded of glass filled or otherwise filled thermoplastic material because the filling renders the molded plastic rigid. For this reason, terminals are held in cavities of these housings by the use of separate blocking pieces which are secured to the housing to close the terminal receiving cavities following insertion of the terminals as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,933. These separate pieces conventionally required to retain terminals in cavities in glass filled thermoplastic housings increase both manufacturing and storage costs. Increased labor is also required to position these pieces in the block following the insertion of the terminals.
It has been proposed, as a solution to the above-mentioned problem, to mold a rigid connector housing from a filled thermoplastic material with an integrally molded gate extending from one side adjacent an open ended row of terminal receiving cavities. The gate is secured to the connector housing by a rigid portion having thin resin rich layers at its opposite opposed surfaces and a rigid resin filled composite between the layers. When the gate is rotated towards the closed position, one resin layer and the composite are ruptured by the tensile force allowing the gate to rotate to the closed position about the remaining flexible resin rich layer. In this way an integral housing is formed to keep the parts in one location thereby lessening production storage and labor costs. Such a connector housing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,151.